Amphibious Warship America to Leave for West Coast on Thursday

The first of the Navy’s latest class of amphibious warship, America (LHA-6), is set to depart Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. for the West Coast on Thursday, according to Huntington Ingalls Industries.

America is scheduled for commissioning on Oct. 11 in San Francisco and will be based at Naval Station San Diego, Calif.

The 44,850-ton ship successfully completed its acceptance trails earlier this year in the Gulf of Mexico, which included tests of more than 200 hundred systems and the ship’s gas turbine hybrid drive.

The $3 billion ship and second in class Tripoli (LHA-7), currently under construction, are being built with an emphasis on aviation assets like the MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey and the Marine variant of the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). However, the ships do not a have a well-deck for amphibious landing craft.

The third ship in the class — the yet-to-be-named LHA-8 —is currently being redesigned to include a well-deck.

The America LHAs will eventually replace the current 8 Wasp and single Tarawa class amphibious warships to form the centerpiece of the Navy’s three-ship Amphibious Ready Group (ARG).

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About Sam LaGrone

Sam LaGrone is the USNI Online Editor at the U.S. Naval Institute.
He was formerly the U.S. Maritime Correspondent for the Washington D.C. bureau of Jane’s Defence Weekly and Jane’s Navy International. In his role he covered legislation, acquisition and operations for the Sea Services and spent time underway with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Canadian Navy.
Sam is a 2003 graduate of Virginia Military Institute.

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Post navigation

The Departure of The USS AMERICA has been delayed for a day to replace a leaky Propellor Shaft seal. She is now Scheduked to Depart at 9am FRIDAY morning. To see her off, the Public is asked to gather at “Point Park” in Pascagoula, MS at 8:30am Friday. Take I-10 and exit 69 South to US-90. Take 90 to Market Street in Pascagoula and follow it South to Beach Boulevard. Take a Right on Beach Blvd. and follow it to the end at The Point Park. Bring Your American Flags and Help us send off The America to Join The Fleet! See You There!…